C ONCLUSIONES

New technologies are being introduced regularly to make e-mail work harder. There are products and services available to enhance your abil-ity to personalize and customize e-mail, and e-mail service bureaus who can provide you with start-to-finish services, including building and managing your own e-mail list.

Basically, you can decide to outsource your e-mail or manage e-mail lists and programs in-house. Two of the better known firms in the outsourced e-mail business are MessageMedia (www.messagemedia.com), which in mid-2001 was acquired by the online advertising firm DoubleClick, and Digital Impact (www.digitalimpact.com).

A number of products and services, from simple to extremely sophis-ticated, are available if you want to handle e-mail yourself. Interact, from Responsys (www.responsys.com), is one of the more sophisticated sys-tems. Interact provides support for dynamic personalization so that mar-keters can personalize messages based on customer contact and profile

data. It supports text and HTML e-mail, provides list and data manage-ment, and has a complete response management and tracking capability.

TargetMessaging from Exactis.com (www.exactis.com) allows users to mine customer data and build targeted lists, create personalized offers or communications, use Exactis.com to build and send the offers, and analyze the tracking data provided to construct reports and improve later campaigns.

Personalized, targeted e-mail is on the rise, and it is sure to become an important factor in the effective use of e-mail for marketing. An issue of the Peppers & Rogers Group e-mail newsletter, INSIDE 1to1 (www.m1to1.com), distributed in mid-2000, reported on a personal-ized e-mail system established by Onsale. Onsale, now part of Egghead (www.egghead.com), moved from standard, nonpersonalized e-mails sent to customers in 1998, to e-mails that targeted customers with specific product recommendations, based on their purchase history. Informa-tion from the customer’s registraInforma-tion record, transacInforma-tion data, and click-throughs on the site was used to create a one-to-one e-mail strategy.

According to INSIDE 1to1, Onsale improved its response rates by more than 40%…and 74% of the company’s orders were from repeat buyers after Onsale began using the personalized e-mail system.

The Rise of HTML and Rich E-mail

Although the predominant form of e-mail is still text based, e-mail is increasingly becoming HTML based. The result is that messaging might soon resemble mini–Web pages, complete with formatting and graph-ics, rather than standard text-based communication. In addition, rich e-mail, which is e-mail that uses multimedia components such as ani-mation and sound, is on the rise. Sometimes HTML e-mail is turned into a digital postcard.

Some studies suggest HTML e-mail is outpulling text e-mail in terms of response. The lingering issue with HTML and rich e-mail, however, is that not all e-mail systems can receive these types of e-mail, but as systems are upgraded, HTML e-mail is sure to become a far more com-mon format. Today, the b-to-b Internet marketer would do well to con-sider creating e-mail in both text and HTML formats to accommodate this shifting market. Use an e-mail distribution service that can detect whether or not the recipient’s e-mail system can receive HTML and then you can use text e-mail as the default version.

A more conservative alternative to HTML e-mail is to introduce HTML gradually by using Web page links in text-based e-mail to send readers to an HTML newsletter or promotional page. As mentioned earlier, e-mail newsletters are using this hybrid strategy to mix the ad-vantages of traditional e-mail and HTML pages.

My agency, Directech | eMerge (www.directechemerge.com), uses this strategy in publishing our own direct and e-marketing newsletter.

We send out Direct Insight Online, an HTML- and text-based e-mail newsletter, periodically to our house list of clients and prospects. In the e-mail is a hyperlink to the Subscriber Services page, where readers can opt out or access an archive of past issues. You can subscribe to this newsletter free on our Web site.

E-mail Innovations are Coming Fast and Furious

Here are just a few examples of some innovative e-mail tools:

• MessageMates are similar to banner ads, but they attach to e-mail.

They are part of a product line of e-mail attachments and other multimedia innovations from a company called Indimi (www.indimi.com).

• E-mail featuring sound and animation is available through Me-dia Synergy (www.meMe-diasynergy.com) and its Flo Network, which offers the ability to create, deliver, personalize, track, and report on e-mail campaigns. Rich media advertising vendor Bluestreak (www.bluestreak.com) offers RichMail, which allows e-mail to include rich media and permits the advertiser to change the offer in real time, right up until the recipient opens the e-mail. E-mail service provider Britemoon (www.britemoon.com) offers talking e-mails through a partnership with BYOBroadcast. MindArrow (www.mindarrow.com) delivers multimedia eBrochures as e-mail attachments. In May 2001, MindArrow announced an alliance with NetCreations to deliver rich media e-mail to customers of PostMasterDirect.com.

• Zaplets (www.zaplet.com) reside on top of e-mail, arriving in the e-mailbox and acting like e-mail. Once opened, however, a Zaplet

acts more like the Web, incorporating graphical and interactive capabilities. Zaplets offer the ability to conduct surveys and polls and set meeting times. Zaplets can be created by anyone, updated as individuals respond, and analyzed as responses come in.

• LifeFX (www.lifefx.com) allows a 3D rendered face to appear in a person’s e-mailbox. An agreement with Kodak will lead to people being able to send images of their own faces via e-mail.

In March 2001, one of my agency’s media analysts received quite an unusual HTML e-mail. It was a promotion for the 2001 Rich Media Road Show, sponsored by Emerging Interest and MediaPost Communi-cations. The e-mail included the recipient’s name, graphically spelled out in an animated portion of the e-mail, and the e-mail went one step further and also spoke the recipient’s name! According to an April 16, 2001, report in BtoB magazine, this rich e-mail campaign was sent to 20,000 media professionals and achieved a 6% click-through rate.

All of the innovations mentioned here are worthy of evaluation, but keep in mind that any new e-mail technology should be pretested and verified prior to use. Also realize that not every recipient’s e-mail system will be able to accept e-mails or attachments using newer technologies.

For serious e-mailers, e-mail management systems are becoming a necessity. These systems not only handle outbound e-mail, they process inbound e-mail in much the same way as a call center or direct mail lead processing center would do. E-mail management systems identify, route, and sometimes automatically answer incoming e-mail. Many such sys-tems also include full reporting capabilities and the ability to survey e-mail respondents on the quality of service received.

What About Viral Marketing?

There is even new terminology associated with the emerging impor-tance of e-mail marketing: “viral marketing.” This somewhat unfortu-nate moniker wrongly associates e-mail marketing with viruses. The intended meaning, however, is marketing that spreads rapidly via e-mail or other Internet communications.

Writing in Red Herring (May 2000), Steve Jurvetson says viral mar-keting got its start when Hotmail, a Web-based e-mail service, included

a promotional message about its service with a URL in every message sent by a Hotmail user. The result, says Jurvetson, was that “every cus-tomer becomes an involuntary salesperson simply by using the prod-uct.” He claims that Hotmail’s subscriber base reached 12 million users in only 18 months, with a meager advertising budget of just $50,000. It was all because of viral marketing.

Given the nature of the Internet and e-mail, it is easy to see how marketing messages can spread just as rapidly as computer viruses themselves. By simply adding a promotional message to an e-mail, that e-mail becomes a promotion that can then be forwarded to one, or one hundred, or one thousand individuals in no time. For viral marketing to be most effective, there should be a valuable reason why someone should want to forward your e-mail. Maybe it is a discount or a freebie, a brief test or a free report, or just something with sound or motion. Whatever it is, if you offer both the sender and the recipi-ent something of perceived value, viral marketing will be that much more potent.

A common variation on the viral marketing theme is “tell a friend”

or “forward to a colleague.” Basically, this means the marketer suggests that the recipient of an e-mail pass it along to someone else, and pro-vides an easy way to do this, perhaps with a “forward to a colleague”

button within the body of the e-mail. There may or may not be a re-ward attached to this. Some e-mail distribution services can track pass-along back to the original recipient so that marketers can find out how well the concept works for themselves.

Automated E-mail Response

It is easy to build in a mail to e-mail link so that visitors can instantly inquire about your products or services, but it is just as important to respond promptly if not instantly. A variety of autoresponder or autobot tools are available that can respond automatically to such requests. On good electronic commerce sites, for example, your order can be instantly acknowledged as soon as you place it. An e-mail message is sent to your mailbox verifying your order and providing you with an order number and shipping information. This is also a good way to prevent fraud, because if the recipient did not place the order, he or she can immedi-ately inform the sender of the e-mail.

Other Important Facts About E-mail

• Various software tools are available to help you automate e-mail-ings. You can use these tools to build e-mail lists, do “e-mail blasts,” and automatically respond to inbound e-mail. Numer-ous firms will rent you e-mail lists or help you implement full-scale e-mail campaigns from start to finish.

• E-mail addresses change even more rapidly than business ad-dresses, so expect at least 10% of an e-mail list to be undeliver-able at any point in time. Obviously, starting with a clean list and scrupulously maintaining it will help.

• Response to e-mail campaigns can be fast, even immediate, so be prepared to handle the back end—acknowledgment, processing, and fulfillment—before you execute an outbound e-mail campaign.

• Expect e-mail to generate some negative responses. Even if you are e-mailing to customers or to an opt-in prospect list, a few recipients may resent receiving promotional e-mail and will not hesitate to let you know about it. It is good business practice to send these people an apology and suppress their e-mail addresses from future promotions.

• Be especially cautious when you use international e-mail. Check into all country- and region-specific regulations. Make sure you are using the appropriate language and following local customs.

You may find that opt-in e-mail lists are virtually nonexistent internationally. In this case, it will make more sense to seek out local e-mail newsletters or e-mail discussion groups instead.

• E-mail can be—and should be—personalized and customized when-ever possible. As with personalized direct mail, if you can use an individual’s name, recognize any relationship the individual has with your organization, and incorporate pertinent information in an e-mail, it will potentially increase response. E-mail can also be customized to the needs of the recipient via database technologies now available; for example, different e-mail texts can be automati-cally generated to different audiences based on database criteria.

• Use the subject line of an e-mail appropriately. The subject line is like teaser copy on a direct mail envelope or the headline on a print ad—it could determine whether or not the recipient reads the e-mail. The subject line should be a few words of intriguing copy, but it should not mislead the recipient or misrepresent the content of the e-mail.

• E-mail is short-form communication, except for the e-mail news-letter format. Paragraphs and sentences in e-mail should be short and concise. E-mails should generally be no longer than 500 words.

• E-mail is still primarily an informational vehicle. Some readers may react negatively to overuse of very promotional language.

You need to be careful with tone, because e-mail comes across as flat copy without graphic signals to emphasize certain words or phrases. For example, anything in CAPITAL LETTERS is usually seen as SHOUTING when used in e-mail. Avoid overuse of ex-clamation points. Don’t oversell. Make use of good direct mar-keting copywriting techniques, such as incorporating a call to action into your e-mail, but be aware that all words may appear the same. So, using larger point sizes, bolding, underlining, or italicizing will not necessarily be seen.

• Send e-mails “raw”—do not format the text, change fonts, or use attachments, tables, graphics, or artwork. E-mail campaigns should be designed for the lowest common denominator, which today is plain text only.

• Use e-mail to drive recipients to specific Web pages with more information or to reference your Web site. It is very likely that individuals with an e-mail address will also have Web access. You can embed a link to your Web site in an e-mail, but some readers may not be able to access the link directly through their e-mail programs, so spell it out.

• Test e-mail, just as you would direct mail. Consider testing lists, offers, copy length, and text vs. HTML and rich e-mail. You can even test methods of response, determining whether e-mail re-cipients prefer to go to Web pages or make phone calls. The

rea-son for testing is to see what works and to continuously refine your efforts so that you increase response with every subsequent campaign.

• Use good sense in executing e-mail direct marketing. Integrate e-mail appropriately with other techniques in your direct market-ing lead generation programs. Be sure you use e-mail wisely. Build your own e-mail list and keep it current with the addresses of individuals who give you permission to communicate with them via e-mail. Do not use unsolicited e-mail. Test opt-in e-mail cau-tiously. Respect the privacy and needs of your target audience.

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